Daily Encouragement

May 9, 2010 - Watch Out For Spiritual Deception

As Nehemiah and the people of God continued on their rebuilding of the wall of Jerusalem, the enemies increased the attack upon them with discouragement and rumors and even with attempts of assassination and traps of false accusation. The surprising thing was that the enemies bribed some so called prophets to say things that caused fear to Nehemiah. These men and women prophets were apparently making deceiving statements to discourage God's people. (v. 13)

Some believers and supposedly partners of God's work may be the most powerful counterfeit workers for the devils. They may be motivated by money from or marriage relationship with the enemy, one way or another they hurt the cause of the building up of ministry. (v. 12, 18)

Therefore we must always be vigilant to discern people's comment or disguised care. Some people's advice may not come from God. Let us watch out for spiritual deception.

May 10, 2010 - The Joy Of Relying On The Lord

Meditation on Nehemiah 8

A great revival meeting happened as Nehemiah and Ezra led the remnants to read the word of God in the public at their Water Gate. The leaders also provided teachers and translators for all both old and young, so they can understand the law of God. As the reading went on, the congregation was convicted of their sins and disobedience against God in the past. They cried.

But Nehemiah and Ezra told them stop their weeping and sadness. Instead they should rely on the LORD and rejoice in what God had done for them. The joy of the LORD was their strength. (v. 10) When they relied on the LORD, they would have strength to rejoice and serve God. Moreover, they could even share their provision with others, so more people may have the joy.

In whatever circumstance we may be today, we can have strength to rejoice in the Lord by relying on Him and reading his Word.

May 11, 2010 - Thorough Clean Up

Meditation on Nehemiah 13

In this closing chapter, Nehemiah told us how he continued to clean up the spiritual disobedience of the remnants. He set up rules to prevent the merchants from selling things on the Sabbath. He arranged people to make sure that the Sabbath was being honored by all. He made sure that the Levites and priests were being provided according to God's law. He reminded the people of God not to marry the unbelievers.

When Nehemiah took time off to go back to serve the Persian King, the remnants in the land of Judah were not keeping God's law as they had promised. When he came back, he straightened out all their evil deeds. Some former enemies of the Israelis saw that the remnants had accomplished their rebuilding of Jerusalem and settled down there. So they changed their tactics and joined in the Jewish community by getting their children to marry the Jews. One of the high priests had even prepared a huge living room in the temple for a former opponent of Jerusalem because of a marriage relationship. When Nehemiah found out about that, he threw away all the furniture and put back in there all the holy materials for the temple. The party that married the heathen was chased out also.

God's community must be pure. God's house must be cleaned. Nehemiah, the great leader made sure his goal was accomplished according to God's standard. What about your life as a Christian? Have you cleaned up all the dirty laundry yet?

May 12, 2010 - The First Miss Universe

Meditation on Esther 2

The Persian King, Ahasuerus (Xerxes) had a kingdom that crossed over three continents, Asia, Europe and Africa. The Scriptures says that it had 127 provinces stretching from India to Cush in Upper Nile. In his days, it was probably the biggest kingdom in the world. When the king wanted to select the most beautiful virgin to be his wife, the queen, they searched all over his kingdom for the candidates for the king to choose. It probably would have taken more than a year for this process to be completed. Verse 12 tells us that the girls brought forth to see the king must go through twelve months of beauty treatment!

Since China has never joined any Miss Universe contest in modern time, I would imagine that this Persian King's selection process would have to be a then world wide contest similar to the current Miss Universe Competition. The winner of that ancient beauty contest was Esther who was chosen by the King as well as attractive to all those who saw her. (v. 15) The King even pronounced a holiday and gave gifts to the citizens in the capital for such selection and the crowning of the queen Esther, a Jew who did not reveal her identity.

But importantly, the new queen was not only beautiful in face and body, she was beautiful and courageous at heart who trusted in God and manifested obedient character. (v. 20) We shall see her impact in future chapters.

May 13, 2010 - Ethnic Cleansing

Meditation on Esther 3

Haman was elevated to a very high position in the court of King Xerxes. But Mordecai, the foster parent of Esther refused to bow to Haman. One of the reasons was that Haman was a descendant of Agagite, the people who belonged to the tribe of Malekite, the ancient enemy of Israelites. The Malekites attacked the people of God during the time of Exodus in the desert while they were most vulnerable.

Haman was filled with rage against Mordecai and plotted to eliminate the entire Jewish population through out the Persian Empire. Of course this caused tremendous alarm and fear for the Jews because they would face the certainty of extermination.

This kind of hatred toward an entire race is not uncommon through out history and even until now. Men who are sinful and desperately wicked (Jeremiah 17:9) could produce the mentality to harm or kill all those whom they do not like. If not to the point of having the desire of ethnic cleansing, many people today still despise, discriminate, hate, and look down upon other races whose skin color or outward appearance are different from their own.

May God help us to look out for the spirit of Haman but learn to accept others' differences as all of us are the people whom God loves and has given His son to die for. (John 3:16)

Thank God that He had caused the lot for the date to kill the Jews was cast for eleven month later before it could be carried out.(v. 7) God's later provision had prevented the killing of the Jewish race in history.

May 14, 2010 - What To Do When You Can’t Fall Asleep

Meditation on Esther 6

King Xerxes could not sleep that night after he attended the banquet Esther had set for him but without telling him what she wanted. So he asked for reading of the chronicles of his reign. Through the reading he realized that he was almost assassinated by two palace guards if it was not for Mordecai's report of that attempt. So he ordered to have Mordecai honored in the capital immediately. It happened that Haman was coming to ask for permission to hang Mordecai whom he hated. Yet before he could make his request, the king commanded him to be the person who would proclaim honor for Mordecai. God had controlled the situation and turned Mordecai's ill fate into great fortune while Haman's wicked scheme became his self inflicted shame.

Furthermore, I learn another lesson from this episode. When we cannot go to sleep at night, it might be God's way of telling us to review something in our lives. King Xerxes loved Esther. But he was bothered by the fact that she did not tell him what was her request that was to come. He was a smart king. He wanted to know the history of his ruling. Did he do everything right? Were there things that he could do better or forget? As a result, he did the right thing as God moved him.

The next time when you have insomnia, try what Xerxes did. God may have something for you to do.

May 15, 2010 - The Feast Of Purim

Meditation on Esther 9

The Jews in the Persian Empire were mourning because of the casting of the lot by Haman to designate the thirteen day of the month of Adar to be the day for all the Jews to be killed. (Esther 3:7, 13) But through the teaching of Mordecai to Queen Esther and the fasting and bravery of Esther to see the King Xerxes, the whole matter was changed to in favor of the Jews to defend for themselves against all their enemies. Haman and his ten sons were hanged.

So Mordecai was promoted to be the highest official in the King's court. He and Esther sent out a decreed in the name of the King to all the Jews to have a memorial feast of Purim every year to fast a day and then celebrate in the next two days during the same period which the lot was first cast to destroy them. So the mourning was turned into joy and giving of gifts to the poor. Today, the Jews still celebrate this festivity with the reading of the book of Esther.

The casting of the lot was called Pur. So the festival was called Purim. But a thoughtful person would surely know that the whole matter was due to the providence and salvation of the LORD. The fasting of Esther and the Jews was certainly an act of total reliance on the Lord who only could turn a tragedy around. So the Feast of Purim should be a remembrance of God's doing in the lives of those who trusted in Him.

Proverbs 16:33 says, "The lot is cast into the lap; but the whole disposing thereof is of the LORD.” (KJV)